Dead
person after 48 h. back to life!(Rigor
Mortis dead returned
to life)

Report
of a stunning, miraculous
event in Nigeria, on 2 December 2001

In the morning of
November 30th 2001, Daniel Ekechukwu,
pastor of the a pentecostal church, drove his 20-year-old Mercedes 230
back to his home. Traveling down a steep road, the brakes of the
Mercedes
failed. Daniel could do nothing. Gathering speed the vehicle hurtled
downhill
unstoppable. Its career, and Daniel’s, ended as it smashed into a stone
pillar.

Without a seat
belt Daniel was catapulted violently
forward. His head hit the windscreen and the steering wheel and knob
punched
into his body. Daniel’s friend Kingsley Iruka, shocked though not badly
hurt, turned to Daniel, hoping all was well. But the sight appalled
him.
Blood was pouring from Daniel’s nose from a head injury, and then he
began
vomiting blood from an heavy internal hemorrhage. A rescueteam arrived
soon and gave the first medical attention. Marvelously Daniel held up
until
he was placed in the local hospital’s intensive care, or the Nigerian
best
equivalent of it. His wife, Nneka was sent for. She found Daniel still
alive but only just. He hung on to life to ask her to have him taken to
his family doctor’s hospital in Owerri – a very serious mistake.

It meant anything
but a smooth ride of one and
a half hours. Within minutes of being lifted into the ambulance Daniel
felt himself dying. He tried to whisper his last words and instructions
to Nneka. He begged her specifically to see to it that the work of
their
church would continue. He also tried to inform her about one or two
church
situations she ought to be aware of, but his speech slurred, became
incoherent
and stopped as he drifted into unconsciousness. The ambulance driver
pushed
on however, at full speed, warning sirens blaring. Reaching the Owerri
Regional Hospital they ran in shouting “Emergency! Emergency.” Daniel’s
doctor, however, was not on duty. Instead a member of the medical staff
took charge and checked Daniel’s now limp form. However, with a sad
face
he could only inform the wife and others that Daniel was already dead.

Nneka, the wife of
Daniël, was shocked. But
a Bible verse had been ringing in her mind from Hebrews 11, “Women
received
their dead raised to life again.” An irrational conviction seized her:
She would see Daniel alive and well again.

In what follows
now Nneka was the key figure.
The bibletext, firmly in Nneka’s thoughts, made it impossible for her
to
accept the plain evidence that Daniel had gone and give permission for
him to be buried. Being very agitated she asked for another doctor.
They
went to dr. Jossy Anuebunisa at the St. Eunice Clinic. Seeing Nneka’s
determination
this doctor checked again. He could only confirm that death had taken
place.
The time registered was 11.30 p.m. of the day of the car accident.

The doctor then
wrote out his report on the injuries
and the cause of the death and asked if they wished to have Daniel laid
in the clinic’s mortuary, which they declined. Instead they moved the
body
to Daniel’s father in the village near Owerri and from there to the
Ikeduru
General Hospital Mortuary, not far away. The resident mortician, Mr.
Barlington
R. Manu, also carried out the normal checks and by then it was after
midnight,
one o’clock Saturday morning. The mortuary having no cold storage
facilities,
the mortician administered the usual chemical substances and prepared
the
body for embalming on the following morning. With a staff member he
laid
the body out on a mortuary slab between two other dead people. Everyone
then retired for the night.

Then came the
first signs of something strange.
The mortician was awakened by what he called ‘church singing’ coming
from
the direction of the mortuary. He got up and went to see what was going
on but the singing stopped. He was puzzled for he found nobody near the
building. He went back to bed. Then once more came the clear sound of
music
and clapping. Quite sure now it was from the mortuary itself he got up,
went in and looked around. Again the singing had stopped. Nobody was
there
but the dead. Very disturbed he went back. Soon for the third time the
music burst forth. This was real. It frightened him. Almost in panic he
drove into the nearby village and roused Daniel’s father. His son’s
body
must be removed from the building, he insisted. It was creating some
kind
of strange phenomena. The father merely assured the mortician that “ It
is because he is a man of God”. At that the dead son was left where he
was, in the mortuary, overnight till morning and all day Saturday. The
mortuary attendants heard no more choir music the rest of the day.

Meanwhile Daniel’s
wife convinced her husband
would live again, wanted his body taken to the church in Onitsha where
Reinhard Bonnke was to speak at a dedication ceremony of the Grace of
God
Ministries. Daniel’s father, however, was a Mormon believer and
declared
he would decide. He said he would go and “hit him with the Bible seven
times,” and if Daniel did not rise, then Nneka should accept the fact
that
he was not going to rise from the dead, and that should end the matter.
He did go and struck the corpse as he said seven times, with no result
whatever.

Nneka, being a
Christian, considered a Mormon
would not understand. His performance meant nothing except to put her
off.
She would not give up. She pestered her father-in-law with: "Daniel
must
be taken to the church and meeting where evangelist Bonnke will be
ministering,
God will raise him there because of the anointing."

Realizing
that if he refused this favor,
she would remember all her life he had denied her request on behalf of
her husband. Eventually he relented. On the next day, Sunday, December
2, they went to take the body from the mortuary. But the mortician was
worried about their intentions. To hide the fact that a body was being
taken away as it was, with a one and half hours drive to Onitsha, as a
pretext he dressed the body as for the funeral, placed it in a coffin
and
shut the lid. They took Daniel in his coffin and set off.

Arriving at the
Onitsha church compound, the State
security officer and the ushers saw them entering with a coffin and
ordered
them to turn round and leave immediately. Nneka however was determined.
She pleaded and persisted not only for the coffin to be allowed in the
church compound but brought into the church itself. The coffin was
opened
by the security and they examined the coffin and the body, they saw
that
it was not a terrorist trick to plant a bomb. Finding only a pallid
corpse
he allowed them to proceed. However the idea of bringing a coffin or a
dead body into a crowded church brought consternation and upheaval.
Finally
the Head Bishop’s son Pastor Paul Jr. sought his father’s permission to
get the body into the building, but it would have to be only into the
children’s
department. The children were ushered into the lower hall, and the
corpse
brought in the upper room and laid out on a table. The Bishop’s son,
Paul,
and another pastor on the church staff, Bathcomery Nkwando, attended to
this and found rigor mortis had stiffened the limbs.

Two other staff
pastors, Lawrence Onyeka and Luke
Ibekwe joined them to guard the body. Meanwhile Reinhard Bonnke knew
nothing
of this and was preaching and praying upstairs in the main auditorium.
After a while the pastors noticed a slight twitching of the stomach of
the corpse. Then the corpse drew a breath, and presently irregular
breathing
took place in “short bursts” as they reported. Encouraged, the pastors
threw themselves into powerful petitionary prayer, stripped the body of
the mortuary gloves, socks and shirt and began massage from head to
foot,
Daniel being as said “as stiff as an iron rod.” They asked for fans to
be brought in to give Daniel more air to breathe. As this news broke
out
in the sanctuary above it created hysterical pandemonium. Then, said
Pastor
Lawrence, at 5:15 on the Sunday afternoon, nearly two days after death
had taken place, Daniel opened his eyes, sat up and leaned on Pastor
Lawrence.

People began
crowding into the hall to see this
resurrection man. Pastor Lawrence was worried Daniel would not have
enough
oxygen, so he lifted and carried him into the church sanctuary. Daniel
spoke for the first time“Water. Water.” They gave him sips and then
warm
tea. To give him a clear space they seated him on a chair on the
platform,
where hundreds of people saw him slowly recovering. However, he
progressed,
and within only hours, during the evening, he had full consciousness
and
coherence. He became a wonder, and crowds besieged his home, so he was
taken away to a secret location for two days of physical
re-strengthening.
The once-dead man not was not only raised from death, but all his
wounds
were also healed without the slightest trace. Medical doctors were
shocked
as they met the risen Daniël, alive and well!

Reinhard Bonnke
meanwhile had left the immediate
scene to board a planned plane flight. Any doubts? Here are some hard
facts
that won’t go away. For two days Daniel did not breathe, his heart had
stopped beating. It was in a hot climate, not suspended animation in an
ice chamber. He had been injected with a harsh chemical to keep back
mortification.
As a corpse he was carted around for hours, pulled about, and lay in an
airless narrow coffin for hours. He should have had severe brain
damage,
but he is alive now without any ill effects.

This is no
unsupported claim of bringing someone
to life privately, as in a house. Here was a public event, an open
demonstration
of revival from death. If anyone has to be named, it is Nneka. Her
incurable
faith alone prevented Daniel’s burial; simply to bring him where she
was
convinced God could bring him back to life. She regarded Reinhard
Bonnke
as a man of God and that in the atmosphere of faith where he ministered
this miracle was possible. The faith of Nneka dictated the whole event
and her faith was honored. By whom? Who honored her faith? If not
God,
who else?

Report by Robert
Murphree and George Canty. Edited
by Pastor T. J. de Ruiter; published on this site with
permission
of CFaN